The first animation here was made using Krita. I finally realised how to clip a multiply shadow later onto the colour layer. This makes adding shading more enjoyable than the last time I did it. Colouring is still a tedious hassle in this free program but hey, it’s way more enjoyable than the nasty drawing experience of Adobe Animate. The second animation is using my gorgeous new Note10 phone stylus and a app called FlipaClip. I need to give them a good review so maybe they can make it even more friendly for portable animation. My new Galaxy Note10 phone has an absolutely god-tier drawing preformance. I’m so pleased that technology has finally gotten to this stage that I could prefer a phone over my cintiq. ヾ（〃＾∇＾）ﾉ♪

Mutant daughter <3 Made using Krita

Made in FlipaClip

Dolphin babe

Someone got inspired by Lets Not Meet podcasts…

mutant gorl

Autodesk Sketchbook Ryuunosuke and saber Gilles

Kangaroo Island sketching

Kangaroo Island sketching

I wanted to mention how much I need to prioritise blogging over social media worries. This all ties into my quest for mindfulness, minimalism and to live life my way. I choose focus over distractions, I choose to make and share art on my own terms. I’d rather be putting effort into vinyasa yoga and other pursuits that make me feel whole.

Lastly…how good is the new Dark Crystal guys?!!!!!!HOLY HELL I’M ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH IT. I am trying not to binge it all in one sitting! I sense more fanart-a-brewing, because I want everyone know how badly I love it and how we need more gorgeous content like this. Thanks for reading!

I got back into studying Japanese again at the start of the year. Language has always been a daunting road and because I tend to get discouraged and go off comforting myself with something I am good at (drawing?) instead.

I have kept up a daily of learning kanji through a site/app called WaniKani. I have I have reached level 11 of WaniKani so far! If I am using more and more kanji in my posts, it’s because I actually know what the kanji says now, my dudes. もう一同日本へ行きたいです。多分将来でアニメの会社に働きたい、でも日本語を勉強する事は難しいです。

I really love WaniKani because it’s an easy way chip away at learning language on a daily basis, as opposed to formally taking a weekly class (which I also have been doing.) This leads to the second part of my post where I share some recent art, mostly heaps of daily gesture sketches from tram rides. I find it really hard to scan older sketchbooks cause I burn through them so fast lol.

﻿Jokkinggg. It’s just THE END OF AUGUST. Crazy how time flies, but I’m having a fine time drawing cartoons every day for a living so it’s all good. My only issue is there’s so little time to sketch, study and experiment with all the mediums and things I want to draw and make..sigh. Thought I’d dump all this miscellaneous old art here before I just never post it. I try to post most on twitter and intsagram but lately just don’t feel like sharing much….more fun to hide away on WordPress.

It’s been a little tough finding time to work on my project this last month. I’ve actually been trying to manage my intensity of working on my film just because I do better work when I give myself breaks. On the plus side I’m on the last stretch of animating!! Polishing up 85+ backgrounds pieces to my liking however, will be a whole new level of perfectionism for me.

I’m really glad that people like the animation clips Iv’e shared, but I’m going to probably share less until it’s finished. This is just because the way I work involves jumping all over the place. Nothing is ever truly as polished as it could be until I get absolutely sick of it. I like to see how each scene correlates to others, even from when they are still just rough storyboards. Keeping characters palettes consistent (bless tagged swatches in Animate), making backgrounds consistent, making characters interact with things/others…etc. I was not prepared for the unending list of challenges that have arisen after working on this. Oh, and animating chains, yes I have attempted to sloppily animate chains. I want to write a more coherent post on all the thoughts that have blipped through my head through making this, but I’ll save that for after I’m done and deserve time to contemplate on it! WordPress is a more constructive and thoughtful place for me to share my thoughts, as opposed to social media, eck.

I also have a tendency to get distracted staying up past midnight making clouds and stars move or adding particles in After Effects, often when I have to be up for work the next morning*. I forget it’s an approximately 2 second long shot that people will probably only watch once and shrug at. *Yeah that’s what I mean about managing stress mostly, getting enough sleep.

mmm dust motes are my life

I see a lot of artists online preaching about ‘setting deadlines’ and ‘finishing what you start’. Yeah yeah, preach on. For me this has been about the journey of making more of my own animations, in my own style, in my own idiosyncratic ways. I realised long ago that you can’t just sit around twiddling your thumbs waiting for a guardian angel to float down to bless you with a sweet salary in order to animate your OCs. Life is so short, just make things and block out the excuses some people use to not create. Meeting deadlines for a living is stressful yes. Life is big fat stressy. That’s why it’s great to just work on something at your own pace and explore a multitude of ideas through making it. Also, I still haven’t gotten YouTube Partnership advertising whatnot sorted, so I’ll worry about finishing content once I have that.

Blue Orb

It’s daunting to start to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this project. All I can hope is when I’m done with it, all the effort I’ve put into every frame is at least mildly fun for people to watch.

On a side note here’s a odd assortment from ‘recent’ sketchbooks from late last year up until now. I thought I’d share before they get too old and I never post this article. Buying a scanner has changed my life. Don’t let grumpy Officeworks staff say you’re fool for wanting to buying a scanner. Keep creating, stay humble and thanks for reading~